Messick posts three examples that make his case, including a cover of Tom Waits' "Gin Soaked Boy" that chillingly channels Howlin' Wolf.
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Over at Living In Stereo, Steve Messick argues that Southside Johnny has been making the records of his career over the last six years. Forced to tour without his legendary Southside Jukes largish band, Johnny and guitarist Bobby Bandiera have stripped down his R&B sound to its blues skeleton, Messick says.
You think the evolutionary path from glider to flier was simple? Think again.
We've returned from the madness of Las Vegas construction, traffic, jackpot buzzers, and cigarette smoke [— No offense, Buddha. I'm just saying. —] to land in the middle of an office move. We've landed! Make sure to gather all your belongings. Though the move spans only three floors, transforming our old nine into a new six, it still comes with the usual disarray. I hate disarray. Can anyone tell me where the fax machine is? And when is my wall going to be completed? Is that huge sheet of glass going to drop on my head? Oh, and a door would be nice. Yes, a door.…
And, if you're still feeling blue on this particularly gloomy Monday, check out today's Sobremesa entry.
That dude in the tux stole all of my moves. I swear!
Chris Hedges writes about writing American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America. He has interesting things to say about the "theology of despair" and its conclusion that cataclysmic destruction is preferable to this too flawed world.
Via Blog of a Bookslut.
Mark Evanier's News From ME points us to Wednesday's TCM broadcast of Billy Wilder's The Big Carnival. Why should you care? It's about as cynical a meditation on media manipulation as you're likely to see—and it is rarely shown. Paramount hated it (and its floppo status) so much that it deducted its Big Carnival losses from Wilder's Stalag 17 profits.
Read Bruce Bennett's appreciation and set your TiVO.
Sir John has a different take on the composer who said, "I have never understood a measure of music, but I have felt it."
La Cieca at Parterre.com has posted a new podcast episode of "Unnatural Acts of Opera," wherein Elenore Steber performs at the Continental Baths in 1973. The Village Voice's Arthur Bell described the performance as "an affair to rank with the coming of Christ, the death of Garland, the birth of the blues, and the freezing of spinach."
Thank you, La Cieca!
The first time I met PSB's Paul Barton, he mentioned that his love of music had been kindled by, among other things, his father building him a violin when he needed a better instrument in order to become a better player.
Holy crap, I thought to myself, how much work goes into building a violin?
Michael Darnton tells you exactly how much work goes into it—well, into building a viola.